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The concept of [[repression]] ([[French]]: ''[[refoulement]]'') is one of the most basic [[concepts]] in [[psychoanalytic theory]].
It denotes the process by which certain [[thought]]s or [[memory|memories]] are expelled from [[consciousness]] and confined to the [[unconscious]].
[[Freud]] was first led to hypothesise the process of [[repression]] through his investigation into the [[amnesia]] of [[hysteria|hysterical]] [[patient]]s.
He later distinguished between [[primal repression]] (a '[[myth]]ical' [[forgetting]] of something that was never [[conscious]] to begin with, an originary 'psychical act' by which the [[unconscious]] is first constituted) and [[secondary repression]] (concrete acts of [[repression]] whereby some idea or perception that was once [[conscious]] is expelled from the [[conscious]]).
Since [[repression]] does not destroy the [[idea]]s or [[memories]] that are its target, but merely confines them to the [[unconscious]], the [[repressed]] [[material]] is always liable to return in a distorted form, in [[symptom]]s, [[dream]]s, [[slips of the tongue]], etc. (the [[return of the repressed]]).
For [[Lacan]], [[repression]] is the fundamental operation which distinguishes [[neurosis]] from the other [[clinical structure]]s. Whereas [[psychotic]]s [[foreclose]], and [[pervert]]s [[disavow]], only [[neurotic]]s [[repress]].
What is it that is repressed?
At one point [[Lacan]] speaks of the [[signified]] as the [[object]] of repression,<ref>{{E}}} p.55</ref> but he soon abandons this view and argues instead that it is always a [[signifier]] that is [[repressed]], never a [[signified]].<ref>{{Sl1}} p.218</ref>
This latter view seems to correspond more closely to [[Freud]]'s view that what is repressed is not the '[[affect]]' (which can only be displaced or transformed) but the 'ideational representative' of the [[drive]].
[[Lacan]] also takes up [[Freud]]'s distinction between [[primal repression]] and secondary [[repression]]:
[[Primal repression]] (Ger. ''Urverdr‰ngung'') is the [[alienation]] of [[desire]] when [[need]] is articulated in [[demand]].<ref>{{E}} p.286</ref>
It is also the [[unconscious]] [[signifying chain]].<ref>{{E}} p.314</ref>
[[Primary repression]] is the [[repression]] of the first [[signifier]].
"From the moment he speaks, from that precise moment and not before, I understand that there is repression."<ref>{{S20}} p.53</ref>
[[Lacan]] does not see [[primary repression]] as a specific psychical [[act]], localisable in [[time]], but as a structural feature of [[language]] itself - namely, its necessary incompleteness, the [[impossibility]] of ever saying "the truth about truth."<ref>{{Ec}} p.868</ref>
[[Secondary repression]] (Ger. ''Verdr‰ngung'') is a specific psychical [[act]] by which a [[signifier]] is elided from the [[signifying chain]].
[[Secondary repression]] is [[structure]]d like a [[metaphor]], and always involves 'the [[return of the repressed]]', whereby the [[repressed]] [[signifier]] reappears under the guise of the various [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] (i.e. [[symptom]]s, [[dream]]s, [[parapraxis|parapraxes]], [[joke]]s, etc.).
In [[secondary repression]], [[repression]] and the [[return of the repressed]] "are the same thing."
The theory of '[[repression]]' is one of the cornerstones of [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Repression]] occurs when impulses, [[wish]]es or [[memories]], usually but not always of a sexual nature, that are bound up with the [[drive]]s, are denied access to the [[conscious]] mind by the [[ego]] because it regards them as a [[threat]] to its integrity or because they offend the [[ethical]] standards imposed upon it by the [[super-ego]].
Such impulses and wishes are forced back into the [[unconscious]] but almost inevitably find other means of expression by using the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
The resultant conflict between the respective [[demand]]s of the [[ego]] and the [[unconscious]] results in the formation of [[symptom]]s, which are a form of [[substitute]] sexual [[satisfaction]] or [[wish-fulfilment]].
[[Repression]] is not a single [[act]] which occurs only once, but a continuous application of pressure in the direction of the [[unconscious]].
The theory of [[repression]] is the key to the psychoanalytic understanding of [[neurosis]] and especially [[hysteria]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the triggering of a [[psychosis]] is governed by the different and specific process of [[foreclosure]].
==Primal Repression==
The expression '[[primal repression]]' is used by [[Freud]] to refer to a hypothetical process in which the [[unconscious]] is constituted through the [[formation]] and [[repression]] of [[unconscious]] ideas and [[representation]]s.
The result is the lating [[fixation]] of the [[drive]] to one particular [[representation]].
'Primal' is used here in the sense in which [[Freud]] speaks of the [[primal scene]].
== def ==
The [[ego]]'s mechanism for suppressing and forgetting its [[instinct]]ual impulses.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Neurosis]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
It denotes the process by which certain [[thought]]s or [[memory|memories]] are expelled from [[consciousness]] and confined to the [[unconscious]].
[[Freud]] was first led to hypothesise the process of [[repression]] through his investigation into the [[amnesia]] of [[hysteria|hysterical]] [[patient]]s.
He later distinguished between [[primal repression]] (a '[[myth]]ical' [[forgetting]] of something that was never [[conscious]] to begin with, an originary 'psychical act' by which the [[unconscious]] is first constituted) and [[secondary repression]] (concrete acts of [[repression]] whereby some idea or perception that was once [[conscious]] is expelled from the [[conscious]]).
Since [[repression]] does not destroy the [[idea]]s or [[memories]] that are its target, but merely confines them to the [[unconscious]], the [[repressed]] [[material]] is always liable to return in a distorted form, in [[symptom]]s, [[dream]]s, [[slips of the tongue]], etc. (the [[return of the repressed]]).
For [[Lacan]], [[repression]] is the fundamental operation which distinguishes [[neurosis]] from the other [[clinical structure]]s. Whereas [[psychotic]]s [[foreclose]], and [[pervert]]s [[disavow]], only [[neurotic]]s [[repress]].
What is it that is repressed?
At one point [[Lacan]] speaks of the [[signified]] as the [[object]] of repression,<ref>{{E}}} p.55</ref> but he soon abandons this view and argues instead that it is always a [[signifier]] that is [[repressed]], never a [[signified]].<ref>{{Sl1}} p.218</ref>
This latter view seems to correspond more closely to [[Freud]]'s view that what is repressed is not the '[[affect]]' (which can only be displaced or transformed) but the 'ideational representative' of the [[drive]].
[[Lacan]] also takes up [[Freud]]'s distinction between [[primal repression]] and secondary [[repression]]:
[[Primal repression]] (Ger. ''Urverdr‰ngung'') is the [[alienation]] of [[desire]] when [[need]] is articulated in [[demand]].<ref>{{E}} p.286</ref>
It is also the [[unconscious]] [[signifying chain]].<ref>{{E}} p.314</ref>
[[Primary repression]] is the [[repression]] of the first [[signifier]].
"From the moment he speaks, from that precise moment and not before, I understand that there is repression."<ref>{{S20}} p.53</ref>
[[Lacan]] does not see [[primary repression]] as a specific psychical [[act]], localisable in [[time]], but as a structural feature of [[language]] itself - namely, its necessary incompleteness, the [[impossibility]] of ever saying "the truth about truth."<ref>{{Ec}} p.868</ref>
[[Secondary repression]] (Ger. ''Verdr‰ngung'') is a specific psychical [[act]] by which a [[signifier]] is elided from the [[signifying chain]].
[[Secondary repression]] is [[structure]]d like a [[metaphor]], and always involves 'the [[return of the repressed]]', whereby the [[repressed]] [[signifier]] reappears under the guise of the various [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] (i.e. [[symptom]]s, [[dream]]s, [[parapraxis|parapraxes]], [[joke]]s, etc.).
In [[secondary repression]], [[repression]] and the [[return of the repressed]] "are the same thing."
The theory of '[[repression]]' is one of the cornerstones of [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Repression]] occurs when impulses, [[wish]]es or [[memories]], usually but not always of a sexual nature, that are bound up with the [[drive]]s, are denied access to the [[conscious]] mind by the [[ego]] because it regards them as a [[threat]] to its integrity or because they offend the [[ethical]] standards imposed upon it by the [[super-ego]].
Such impulses and wishes are forced back into the [[unconscious]] but almost inevitably find other means of expression by using the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
The resultant conflict between the respective [[demand]]s of the [[ego]] and the [[unconscious]] results in the formation of [[symptom]]s, which are a form of [[substitute]] sexual [[satisfaction]] or [[wish-fulfilment]].
[[Repression]] is not a single [[act]] which occurs only once, but a continuous application of pressure in the direction of the [[unconscious]].
The theory of [[repression]] is the key to the psychoanalytic understanding of [[neurosis]] and especially [[hysteria]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the triggering of a [[psychosis]] is governed by the different and specific process of [[foreclosure]].
==Primal Repression==
The expression '[[primal repression]]' is used by [[Freud]] to refer to a hypothetical process in which the [[unconscious]] is constituted through the [[formation]] and [[repression]] of [[unconscious]] ideas and [[representation]]s.
The result is the lating [[fixation]] of the [[drive]] to one particular [[representation]].
'Primal' is used here in the sense in which [[Freud]] speaks of the [[primal scene]].
== def ==
The [[ego]]'s mechanism for suppressing and forgetting its [[instinct]]ual impulses.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Neurosis]]
[[Category:Treatment]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
